Trumpism's most telling and characteristic occasions – not its most crucial, nor cruelest, nor most hazardous, nor most senseless, but perhaps its most illuminating – occurred earlier this fall. Over the span of several weeks, the American president started showing all observers his intentions for a lavish reception room two times larger than the White House and then began unilaterally ripping down the East Wing portion to build it.
He has committed acts countless times more severe – the present calculation of casualties due to his slashing to USAID amounts to 600,000 and increasing, and recently a study predicted his energy policies would result in fatalities another 1.3 million. Yet nothing as characteristic. No other president would have dared – genuinely, no other president would have conceived – unilaterally destroying large sections of the presidential residence in order to erect a royal-themed celebration hall, with the active collaboration of multiple the richest Americans, nearly all of which have business with federal agencies.
We transitioned from 'the gentle will obtain the world' into 'the meek shall die of cholera'
As disorienting as it is to watch the leader try to upend the old idea regarding democracy and exchange it with its polar opposite, there exists a significant segment within America who wouldn't consider it completely novel. This includes individuals like us – among senior generations a near majority – who were educated as mainline Protestant Christians.
We have watched over the years as rightwing evangelical churches turned the Jesus we learned about into exactly the opposite of our understanding of him. Fundamentally, they turned a figure of compassion into a symbol of hate who approves precisely the cruelties that he criticized in scripture; this transformation occurred at a slower pace, across decades instead of months, yet it remains disconcerting through similar means, a bewildering emotional blow for numerous individuals.
A Toxic Christianity Gains Ground
Hence I shall explain the Jesus that I grew up with, since in theory Christ is the focus of any Christian faith, and since the fastest-growing cadre within America might have little sense of him as they consider themselves atheists or agnostics or nones. I raise no objection with any of these traditions, nor with different religions; but I do think that there are pearls of great price in the Christian story.
It is decidedly not the story of a mighty king emerging; conversely, a baby is born to homeless parents in a storage space, who need to rapidly escape to another nation to evade undercover officers. The baby grows up in modest conditions, a working carpenter; his teaching concerns compassion for others, specifically for the disadvantaged – and not a sentimental love, but practical compassion, demonstrated through nourishing and protecting. The Savior's reaction to aggression is to turn the additional cheek – not as a demonstration of submissive tolerance, but as a way to educate the aggressor; his crime policy states that when an individual takes your jacket you ought to provide them your pullover as well.
The apparent and clear fact that the Jesus from scripture advocates for a kind of extreme compassion centered on the impoverished has consistently rendered Christianity somewhat of a controversial faith: attractive to the general public, but because of its intrinsic extremism needing to be contained. During the 1950s it was contained by dilution – Protestant Christianity was so prevalent that it essentially blessed current circumstances.
A Conflict for the Best Within Us
So I have been inspired to see the steadfast resistance against Trump emerge during the previous year. It has been great solace to help build the campaign that has taken to the streets in rally after rally, and seems to have inspired electorate to turn out in significant amounts in interim political contests. We must have to continue it, and in the same spirit, with American flags during all protests and calls to the best parts within national heritage.
We shall be interrogated ... about how you treated the stranger? Did you receive him and receive them or refuse?
The country is optimally secured, to put it differently, by relationship to the highest about American history, similar to Christianity is optimally secured by reference to that which renders it distinctive and wonderful, specifically the model of Christ. In all circumstances does it suggest feigning the most negative of both America and Christian faith was nonexistent; it represents both humility and conviction, a blend that committed US believers should be comfortable with.
